After gaining his PhD in Agronomy and Soil Fertility from Kansas State, Chad Godsey spent seven years as a precision ag cropping system specialist for Oklahoma State University. This broad field experience, added to his early years on a farm near Wray, Colorado, brought a clear realization of a gap he saw between university research and what crop producers could implement at field-level.
“Nobody was offering services centered on the research and proven technologies from our university research,” he remembers. “If services were being offered, they often times were not being used correctly and farmers would get discouraged.” Godsey launched Godsey Precision Ag in 2014 to fill that gap.
Godsey Precision Ag began offering Pioneer Seed along with precise soil sampling and data management. The growing business then added variable-rate planting, fertilizer and irrigation, imagery, and on-farm research. Now Godsey has announced his next step-change in service: a dealership agreement with Meristem Crop Performance, a fast-growing, high quality crop input provider.
“Our precision ag services are tailored for the individual farmer and operations,” said Godsey, founder and CEO of Godsey Precision Ag in announcing the agreement. “By adding Meristem Crop Performance to our portfolio, we will be able to further customize what we bring to every grower we serve and make the drive toward improving farmer ROI (return on investment) even more comprehensive and convenient. In today’s world, a cookie-cutter approach to precision ag does not maximize profitability.”
“Chad Godsey and his team at Godsey Precision Ag are well-known in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska for providing solid agronomic advice and service that helps growers make the most of every seed they plant,” said Mitch Eviston, Meristem Founder and CEO, in announcing the agreement. “We’re excited to be able to come alongside to help them serve their farmer-customers and also gain from their extensive field experience and knowledge as we add new products.”
The Godsey team will now add the Meristem product portfolio including seed treatments under the brand RACEREADY™, HOPPER THROTTLE™ planter box treatments, REVLINE™ plant growth regulators, TRUTRACK™ drift control, AQUADRAFT™ water conditioners and surfactants, UPSHIFT starter fertilizers and HOMESTRETCH™ nitrogen stabilizers, micronutrients, and foliar nutritionals. Of special interest is a line of biologicals Meristem is bringing to market, including EXCAVATOR, a new biological designed to break down tough crop residue.
Godsey field agronomist Paul Beyer says the Godsey team first came across the Meristem brand through their connection to Total Acres, (formerly known as Next Level) run by champion crop producers Randy Dowdy and David Hula. Godsey Precision Ag has run their “camp” for several years, drawing crop producers from Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming as well as their home state of Colorado, for the purpose of studying more intensive crop management practices.
“We started looking at the importance of uniform emergence,” explains Beyer. “In a lot of case studies, what we’ve seen is that in-furrow we can do things that will help us get started well. We like certain sugars and PGRs (plant growth regulators) that will help us get that even stand and faster canopy.” Beyer says the Godsey team sees Meristem as filling a gap in the current services their farmers need.
“The planter pass through the field becomes very important – both on the equipment side and the products used for early plant health,” he says. “We haven’t yet had a full line of PGRs and nutritionals, but now we do. We look at where biologicals are heading, and we feel we can help farmers take advantage of these products by making them available and learning more about them.”
Beyer says the mission at Godsey is to work one-on-one with crop producers to determine exact needs and help recommend precision agriculture technologies that will benefit their operation. “We want to work with you from start to finish, helping create and evaluate prescriptions to improve your bottom line,” he says.
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